On the same day as Catalan daily SPORT repeated news reports suggesting Man City had signed the Barcelona midfielder, over in another Spanish paper, Mundo Deportivo, its reported that Man City are out of the race to sign the former Arsenal man.

Interestingly, Mundo Deportivo’s angle has been verified by the Guardian’s Jamie Jackson.

According to the story in MD, the whole Man City-Cesc link is actually centred around Barcelona’s desire to sign Sergio Aguero this summer.

The belief at the Camp Nou was that if they could include a deal in which Fabregas headed to the Etihad, then perhaps City would come to an arrangement to sell Kun.

Now, however, all those hopes have been categorically dashed, as the Citizens have outright shut the door on allowing the Argentine hitman to leave the club.

MD detail how Aguero is “not for sale”, and the Citizens have “ruled out the signing of Fabregas”.